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Hot sauce is hot stuff these days. In fact, production of the fiery sauces ranks among the country’s top 10 fastest-growing industries.

But if you’ve ever wondered just how hot those sauces really are, stop by Lava Lips, a hot sauce tasting bar that opened recently at 4913 N. College Ave.

Owner Lisa Siemer said she and her husband, Michael, got the idea for the tasting bar after meeting the owner of Peppers of Key West, a Florida hot sauce shop.

“We picked his brain and told him we were hijacking his idea to Indianapolis,” said Siemer. “We thought it would go over really well.”

While Siemer wasn’t sure exactly how many varieties of sauce she currently stocks -- “I have 15 more cases coming in,” she said -- customers can try anything in the shop. “Every single product we have on our shelf we have a sample bottle for.”

The average price, she said, is about $7 a bottle, and most bottles hold about 5 or 6 ounces. Siemer provides customers with chips for sampling the sauces, “or they can bring a sandwich in,” she said.

Labels above the shelves offer a guide to heat levels, but if shoppers try something a bit too hot, not to worry.

“We have a cream cheese mixture and a yogurt mixture,” Siemer said. “We give them a little dollop of that, and they can put the fire out right away.”

Lava Lips is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The shop, which also houses Tiki Trends, a tropical decor business run by Siemer’s husband, is situated between chef Greg Hardesty’s Room Four restaurant and The Sinking Ship bar. And that’s just the kind of spot they had in mind.

“The location was key for us,” said Siemer. “This is the perfect area.”